


Nightstuck

by forestguardian



Category: Hiveswap, Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Monster Hunters, Humanstuck, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, More relationship tags to be added - Freeform, and more character tags too as it progresses, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21754516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestguardian/pseuds/forestguardian
Summary: Sometimes hunting monsters can be difficult when one of them decides she wants to hunt you down before you get to her.(aka John, Jake, and Dirk are monster hunters and a lot of bullshit happens)
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Jake English/Dirk Strider, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Sollux Captor/Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Sollux Captor/Karkat Vantas
Kudos: 9





	Nightstuck

**Author's Note:**

> hiya! I had this sitting in WIPs for ages but I finally got my inspiration back to work on it. I'll still be working on Breath of the Heir, I've just been having A Time with my writing. But I'm back Babeyyy

Jane Harley stood in the kitchen, flour on her apron and her hands on her hips. She stood proudly in front of her newest confection: a large but single-layer vanilla cake, decorated to look like a blue detective’s hat. She thought it might be her new favourite work. 

Jane owned a bakery. She owned a bakery because she was very good at baking, and she was very good at baking because it was something she loved to do when she was stressed.

And she was now finding herself constantly stressed. 

She lived in her bakery, the house a floor up from her shop. With her lived her little brother: John, her older brother: Jake, and Jake’s boyfriend: Dirk. The four of them happened to be closeted monster hunters and it just so happened to get in the way of life. That’s all. 

Jane didn’t originally want to join Jake and Dirk in their monster finding business, but after the frightful death of her and John’s sister and John’s begging pleas to join the older boys, Jane complied to stay to watch over John. It was her duty as his older sister, after all. They didn't even know they were related to Jake until he showed them a picture of his grandma, who happened to be their grandma as well.

Their family tree was complicated.

But it wasn't just the sudden shift in becoming a monster hunter that bothered Jane so much. It was what came with it that caused Jane so much stress. 

A lot, if not most, of the monsters and other supernaturals that the four came across had tried to kill them. It made sense, as most humans were known to kill monsters themselves rather than attempt to deal with them as they do, and it had lead the group into some very dangerous situations. One of which happened recently. And was the thing currently leading her to bake a giant hat cake. 

“That’s some cake, Jane.” 

Jane was shook out of her thoughts by the sound of a voice to the side of her. She turned to meet the vibrant blue eyes of her thirteen year old brother. 

“Oh hello John, I didn’t see you come in.” Jane said. She blinked her eyes back into reality and gave John a bright smile. “It sure is some cake, isn’t it?” 

John laughed. “It’s huge! Probably the biggest thing you’ve ever made—I gotta get a picture of this.” 

He took out his phone and snapped a picture of the large cake. He had to lean way back to fit the whole thing in the picture, which looked rather silly. 

“I’m going to present it in the bakery tomorrow, but I don’t think I’ll sell it. It’s much too pretty to be cut by a stranger, don’t you think?” 

John nodded in agreement, still looking at the cake. After a short while like that he turned to Jane. 

“Oh yeah, I came down here to tell you that Dirk has emerged from his room.” 

Jane perked up at this. “He has?” she asked. “Does he look alright?”

“Well it doesn’t look like he’s slept, but that’s usual for him.” John laughed lightly, but Jane sighed. “Though I think we should be worried about the fact that Dirk’s not wearing his usual shades.” 

“The triangular ones?” Dirk never wore anything but his triangular shades, ever. 

“Yeah, he’s wearing these normal, round ones. I asked him about it but he just shrugged and went to the bathroom.” John said. The two looked down the hall at the sound of a door opening and a low cough. “Sounds like he’s done, you should try to catch him before he locks himself in his room again.” 

Jane ran down the hall to catch Dirk, calling out to him just before he opened the door to his room. He turned to face her, sure enough wearing the circular shades that John told her about. They looked so alien on his angular face. 

“What.” he said. 

“If you insist on shutting yourself up again, you should at least eat something.” Jane told him. Dirk stared at her, swallowing, then nodded his head and walked past her towards the kitchen. Jane frowned. 

“Dirk, this is the first time you’ve left your room since you came back from your mission and you’re acting strange. What’s going on?” 

“Not important,” he said, grabbing a soda from the fridge and popping it open. 

“Well it clearly is, you’re wearing different sunglasses,” Jane pointed out. 

Dirk’s mouth twitched and he took a swig of his soda. “Broke mine,” he said.

“But your glasses were perfectly intact when you returned,” John piped in. 

Dirk closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m doing something with them, I need to fix them up a bit, alright? This last mission was rough and I need a bit of time to myself.” 

Jane raised her eyebrow at him and John stared up at him. 

“You still won’t tell us what happened,” John said. Jane waved him off. 

“Alright Dirk,” she said. “Have your time, making your robots or whatever you’re doing in there but… finish your time soon okay? We’re all worried about you.” 

Dirk nodded at her, taking another swig of soda and turning to leave. 

“And actually eat something, too! You can’t just live off of soda!” Jane added. He raised the bottle up in a ‘cheers’ movement and disappeared back into his room. 

Jane turned to John, lips pursed. He just shrugged his shoulders. “We’re never letting Dirk go on a mission by himself ever again without knowing where it is he’s going.” she said. “Especially if he’s going to act so closed up about what happened to him.” 

“We’ll get an answer out of him eventually. Jake can ask him, I’m sure Dirk can’t refuse his own boyfriend.” John emphasized the last word, opening the fridge himself. “Aw, Dirk drank the last of the sodas.” 

Jane sighed. 

——

_There was a cake on the table. It smelled so strongly of frosting and vanilla, but she was so hungry she barely cared. She looked at the dog next to her, then up at the cake, jutting her head in a ‘should we?’ motion. Becquerel sniffed at the cake, slicing a small square from it in a jet of green light. She took the slice in her jaws with great vigor, happily chowing it down and making a mess on the floor._

_Being a dog was hard._

_She padded down the kitchen, her claws clicking on the tile floor. She hoped whomever lived here was asleep. Becquerel followed behind her, sniffing at every corner of the room._

_‘People in this kitchen a few hours ago’ She heard Becquerel’s barks in her mind._

_‘Anything else?’ she asked. She pushed a trashcan over._

_‘Young’ Becquerel’s voice again. ‘One smells a little like you. Human boy.’_

_She chewed at a discarded chicken bone from the trash. ‘I don’t recognize this place, are you sure?’ she asked._

_‘There was never a surer scent.’ Becquerel’s voice responded._

_She looked back at the table. The cake, which was shaped like a detective’s hat, now had a square hole in it. She knew only one person who could make a cake look and taste that good._

_‘Then let’s come back. Tomorrow.’_

_As he said. There was never a surer scent._

——

Jake woke up to a scream from the kitchen. He ran out of his room, almost crashing into Dirk who was doing the same. Dirk was wearing his old sunglasses again. The scream came from Jane, who stood frozen in the entranceway with her hand on her mouth. 

“What’s going on? What happened?” Jake asked worriedly. Jane turned to him, hand shaking.

“Something’s eaten a bit of the cake!” She pointed furiously at the hole in the cake and then at the pile of slobbery crumbs on the floor. Jake’s eyes went wide. 

“Something's gone through our trash.” Dirk pointed out, kneeling by the tipped over trash can. 

“Well I hope it wasn’t a wild animal, the cake surely would upset it’s stomach,” Jake pointed out, looking around the kitchen for any openings an animal may of slipped through. 

“Oh, so you hope it was something worse?!” Jane snapped at him. 

“Rather it be a wild animal than any other creature I suppose…” Jake rethought. 

“Dogs.” Dirk stood up from the trash. Jane and Jake both turned to look at him.

“Dogs?” they asked in unison.

Dirk walked over to one of the kitchen lights, reaching up to unscrew it. “Well, one of them might be a young wolf, probably a pup, much too small to be fully grown.” He pulled a small device from the light, screwing it back on and returning to Jake and Jane’s side. They looked at him in confusion. “I installed cameras in the lights by the entryway and the back door. I’m still in the process of putting them by the windows, but this—” he handed the small camera to Jake—“I’m glad I had this when I did. It caught the intruders.” 

Jake stared at the tiny intricate camera in his hands, fascinated by his boyfriend’s work. Jane looked at it as well, before turning to Dirk. 

“You’ve watched the tape already? Why didn’t you tell us?” she asked. 

“Oh no I just watched a small part of it just now.” Dirk clarified. “I haven’t seen the full thing.” 

Dirk pointed to his shades at Jane’s confused face. Her eyes widened. 

“So that’s what you’ve been doing to your shades? Turning them into screens?” she asked. She leaned closer to see the glasses better, but Dirk backed away. 

“Technically,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter right now. Here, get John. We’ll watch how these dogs got in.” 

Jane and Jake wanted to ask more questions, but Dirk had already walked into the living room and started setting up the television. He took off his triangular shades, immediately slapping the round ones back on his face, and began to fiddle with the triangles in his hands. After a short while the TV flickered on, the video recording displayed on the screen ready to play. Jane went to go wake up her brother. 

Soon, after Jane explained to John what was going on, the four of them were gathered around the TV. 

“I really want to see how these buggers got in,” Jake commented. “I didn’t find any obvious holes, and the back door was locked!” 

“I just wanna see the dogs,” John said. “Or wolves, whatever they were.” 

“I want to see how they cut a perfect square from my cake!” Jane crossed her arms. 

“Alright, alright, let's just play it.” Dirk typed something into his phone, and the recording started to play. For a while it was just their kitchen, grey in the dark of night. Dirk skipped ahead small amounts, pausing only when the video captured Jake going into the kitchen to steal some chips (‘really Jake?’ ‘I was hungry!’). After that it was just silence. Dirk typed something into his phone again, the video skipped ahead one more time, and they waited.

And then the dogs appeared. Just like that. No sign of them opening the door or climbing through the window; just static in the lens and then they were in their kitchen. 

Dirk paused the film. An outrage followed. 

“Well what the hell was that!” 

“We’ve got a case of some bloody teleporting dogs.” 

“Dirk can you remove the static.”

“Oh shit.” 

Dirk typed fast on his phone before frustratingly tossing it to the side. He reround the film, played it, then reround the film again. No matter how many times he did it, it was always the same. Empty kitchen, and then in a flash of static the two dogs were there. John and Dirk walked closer to the screen, examining the dogs. John pointed to the bigger one of the two. 

“That one! The pure white one, that’s a Siberian husky! I know because my sister had a dog just like him, look Jane!” John called. Dirk stared at the larger dog. 

“That’s a wolf alright, the smaller one. It’s just a puppy though.” He stated. Jake stood behind him, staring at the staticy cam footage. 

“What’s a wolf pup and a domestic dog doing together?” he asked. Dirk shrugged.

“That still doesn’t explain how they got in our kitchen though,” John pointed out. “I know for certain wolves and huskies can’t teleport.” 

“I have a… worrying suspicion.” Dirk said, sitting back on the couch. The other three stared at him. “Let’s see how they got the cake.”

The four watched as the two animals wandered about the kitchen. The wolf pup wandered closer to the counter, sniffing at the cake. It got the attention of it’s husky friend, who took a sniff of the cake as well.

And then, to everyone’s great amazement, the dog’s bright green eyes began to emit static, as well as a portion of the cake. It cut a square from the cake and floated it down to the wolf, who ate it with great gratitude. 

Dirk stopped the video after that. Jake stared blankly at the paused screen, then at the people around him. At least everyone looked about as confused as he was. Dirk let out a low cough. 

“We have a problem,” he said.

“Clearly!” Jane replied, tugging at the curls of her hair. “We’ve got a magic effing dog problem!” 

“Well the good news is, I believe the wolf pup is simply just a wolf,” Dirk said, tapping his phone screen. “The bad news is, that dog is a Guardian.” 

Jake made a choking sound in the back of his throat—monster-hunting experience had given him just enough knowledge on that particular term. Jane and John looked at each other in confusion. 

“A what?” John asked.

“A Guardian is a something that has been granted magic through a will to live. Guardians… well… they guard things. The thing usually being that of which it died for, usually being a close friend, family, an object, or an owner in the case of animals.. Guardians can be anything. In this case it’s a domestic dog.” Jake explained. 

“So the wolf is what it’s protecting?” Jane asked. “That’s kind of cute!” 

“It died for that wolf,” John said with a tone of melancholy awe. 

“And now it’s helping the wolf get food, by teleporting it into people’s houses and stealing their shit.” Dirk said. “Must not have learned how to hunt from its mom.”

The four stared at the paused clip a bit longer, taking in the story of the orphaned wolf and its magical husky guardian. Jake felt a tinge of sorrowful love for the pair of canines. John’s words from earlier clicked in his mind, and a realization struck.

“What happened to your sister’s dog anyway, John?” Jake asked, turning towards him.

John’s expression fell. “I don’t really know… after Jade died, the poor dog ran away. We put out posters but no one was able to find him…” 

“I’m sorry...” Jake tilted his head in silent respect. He’d keep his theory quiet—at least with John and Jane. He wondered if Dirk thought the same thing, but when he turned to look at Dirk, trying to look through the sunglasses to see his expression, Dirk was busy fiddling with his other glasses again with a face of stone-cold fury. “Dirk, are you alright there?” 

Dirk swore frustratingly at his upgraded shades, not hearing Jake. Something must’ve bugged with the technology, Jake thought. Not too unlike some of Dirk’s latest creations. All his newest tech turned out a bit rugged and rushed, as if he was too unmotivated or distracted to complete them. 

“Excuse me,” Dirk muttered, pushing past his roommates with his glasses held tightly in his hands. “A certain pair of technology is being obnoxiously stubborn, so I have to go find time to fix it.” 

He said those final words through gritted teeth, as if his newly-improved sunglasses had decided to stop functioning on purpose. Jake blinked as Dirk brushed past him without a second glance, storming down the hall. Jane sighed.

“That’s the most responsive I’ve seen Dirk since the mission,” she said. Jake nodded solemnly, suddenly missing his boyfriend very much. “I wonder what’s bothering him with those shades that he’s so… hm… into them?” 

John stretched his arms over his head, yawning overdramatically. “Can’t stop him from getting a boner for technology—if he starts making animu weeb robots I might take up your suggestion to move back in with our parents Jane.” 

Jake raised his eyebrows at him, and Jane hit him lightly on the shoulder. 

“John, don’t say that! This is serious!” 

“Bluhhhhh, I’m tired of all this ‘serious’! I have school tomorrow! This is supposed to be weekend funtime; all it’s been is Dirk Sadtime…” 

“Well it’s a shame you feel such a way, chap,” Jake said, patting John on the back. “But your sister and I are worried about Dirk, and for good reason! You must cut us a bit of slack.” 

“Yeah, I know…” 

John rubbed his eyes, wandering his way over to the kitchen cupboard and fetching himself a bowl of cereal. Jake suddenly realized how hungry he was himself, and how late it was in the morning already. Food sounded very good right now—especially with a bit of Guardian research. Yes, he had done plenty of that in the past, but it never hurt to gain a little bit more knowledge. 

Jane ruffled John’s hair as she walked past the dining table, stopping in front of her cake and pursing her lips.

“Well, I might as well fix this cut up a bit and take this down to the shop… no use in displaying an eaten cake if no one else is allowed to try it!” 

Jane scooped the tray with the cake in her arms before making her way to the stairs. She called over her shoulder to her brothers on the way down. “I’ll use it for taste samples, is that a good idea?” 

“Sounds great Jane!” John called back through bites of cereal. She smiled a small smile before carefully heading down the steps to set up shop.

Jake set up his laptop in front of his small plate of toast, sitting across from John as he typed a couple keywords into his computer search. There wasn’t much written on Guardians as they weren’t a common occurrence, especially in the notable sort. Never has a Guardian been reported being human, which led to monster researchers believing that Guardians could only be non-human living entities. The most common reports of people encountering Guardians was with common house pets, such as dogs, cats, or fish. There had been a few reports on small cage-birds as well, along with a report on a lizard, but these reports were small and not very well written. Nonetheless, this white siberian husky fit the written requirements of a Guardian perfectly: common house-pet, green staticy magic, and it was guarding something. 

“Jake?” 

He looked up from his laptop. John had put down his spoon and was now looking at him, eyebrows creased in a small frown. 

“Do you think that Guardian is my sister’s dog?” 

Jake glanced at his laptop, then back to the young teen. 

“Now, John, there’s a lot of siberian huskies in Washington… this dog could be anyone’s.” 

He cursed the nervous warble of his voice as John looked down into the depths of his cereal bowl. He couldn’t help but think that, what if this dog was his sister’s dog? It’s a dumb question, but something he wondered nonetheless. What would this mean for John? For Jane? They knew they’d eventually need to deal with this situation, especially if the two canines decided to return to their home for another midnight meal. However, knowing Dirk, his solution would simply be to kill the dogs and get it over with-especially in his current exhausted state, he wouldn’t want to waste his time playing Animal Control. 

“Either way… you and Dirk aren’t going to hurt the dogs, are you?” John’s voice lilted, like the child Jake often forgot he was. 

“I promise I won’t hurt them,” Jake said. John stared at him.

“And Dirk?” 

Jake forced a small smile. “I’ll… uhm… tell him not to.” 

\--

The rest of the day went on rather uneventfully. Jane had a pretty good day with her bakery, as several customers enjoyed her detective’s hat cake. After the tragic events of the morning, she seemed to be in a far better mood. John got a call from one of his friends to come over to play some video game, so he was gone for most of the afternoon. Dirk had returned to the sweaty confines of his bedroom, and only emerged once the entire day to use the restroom and refill on water. 

Jake spent the rest of the afternoon dreading nightfall. He had locked all the food away in the fridge and cupboard, emptied the trash, and cleaned the counters three times over; anything to hope that the canine duo would not return. After all that was done, he sat on the living room floor with his guns and holster, repairing a small bit of the leather that had become worn after long use. It didn’t really need major repairs--it was just a small tear--but Jake needed something to keep his mind off of the husky and the wolf. He kept the holster with his double silver pistols on his waist for the rest of the day, even after the sun had set. John had gotten back from his friends at around 8:00, and, after Jane had made a huge fuss about how he had school the next morning, went to bed immediately after. Jane informed him that she wanted to work on her recipe book until she passed out, and disappeared into her bedroom after a short while. 

Finding himself alone, Jake slipped into his own room and immediately flopped down onto his bed, cringing as the side of one of his guns stabbed him in the side. He sat up, removing the holster from his waist and laying it onto his bedside table. He didn’t feel relaxed enough to put it back into his closet. He didn’t even feel relaxed enough to change into his pajamas. The sound of a floorboard creaking down the hall nearly made him jump out of his skin. 

The door to his room opened, a tall figure illuminated in the light of the moon. Jake looked up in surprise, meeting the silvery outlines of a very tired-looking Dirk Strider. 

“Dirk!” Jake whispered, not expecting this situation in the slightest. “What are you doing here?” 

He silently walked over to the farther side of Jake’s bed, flopping himself down and...

Immediately passing out. 

“Wee gillykers!” Jake exclaimed, scooting back in surprise. He assumed this must be Dirk’s apology for not being around, sleeping here instead of in his own room, but passing out so quickly like that? He suddenly felt guilty for assuming Dirk had been getting sleep, locked up in his room for days. He leaned forward, carefully sliding off Dirk’s shades and folding them close beside, before getting up to grab a small blanket from the shelf. He placed it onto Dirk before climbing back into bed and closing his eyes.


End file.
